Orion, Jemstep Team in Adviser Tech Offering

Two headwinds for advisers—the speedy pace
of evolving technology and online investment firms—could provide a practice
management edge. Advisers want to engage clients and prospects online with a
service that integrates easily with their existing back-end technology, but
this was not possible until the Orion-Jemstep collaboration, the two firms
said in a statement.

“The partnership with Jemstep provides scalability without being a
cookie-cutter approach to integrating a robo-product at an advisory,” says Eric
Clarke, president of Orion. The solution is not about automating the adviser,
he maintains, it’s about providing an end-to-end solution that attracts and
engages clients, services and manages them, and everything in between. But the technology doesn’t make the adviser look like everyone else. “Our solution is not about automating the adviser,
it is about creating a tool to make the adviser even greater than they already
are by augmenting their differentiation through technology,” Clarke says.

Advisers should approach so-called robo technology without fear,
Clarke says. The immediate takeaway is that instead of tip-toeing around it or
pretending it doesn’t exist, advisers should be part of that disruption. “Robo-technology
is just a catch-all category for a tool, and there is no reason that
independent advisers cannot take advantage of this tool to the benefit of their
clients,” Clarke tells PLANADVISER. The
platform is a way to leverage the technology to their advantage, he says.

Jemstep, rather than being a provider to the robo-adviser
industry, provides tools and technology from a robo
perspective, Clarke says. “The advisers we are trying to empower are
entrepreneurs who are looking for ways to tweak their practice to create the
most advantageous outcome for their clients, providing them with the greatest
possible return while helping improve client-service,” he says.

Clarke says the robo-tool allows advisers to automate their
investment philosophy so they can focus on the greatest value they bring to
their clients: financial planning and advice.

Identity and
Dimension

Instead of a “robo on the side” solution, the Jemstep/Orion
platform allows advisory firms to maintain their distinct identity while adding
new dimensions to their business, Clarke says. “Scale and high tech meet expert
advice and decades of financial wisdom,” he says.

Clarke says the platform is unlikely to
threaten the RIA business model. “We are seeking to help advisers turn the
traditional RIA model on its head,” he says. In that sense, Clarke admits, the
old model for a financial adviser’s approach to their business may be dying. “But
the adviser has never been in such an advantageous position to provide clients
with exemplary service and returns in-line with their bespoke investment
approach,” he says.

The platform allows firms to use their own asset models and
service offering, and to use multiple offerings to different types of
prospects. Known as segmented offers, firms can use the tool to offer a more
expensive “high touch” product to wealthier clients. Younger, smaller accounts
may opt for the cheaper “high tech” service offering.

Advisers have told Jemstep that they want a way to leverage
technology to expand assets under management (AUM), differentiate their
services and efficiently scale their businesses, says Simon Roy, president of
Jemstep. The ability of the integrated platform to deliver against that promise
by joining Jemstep’s client platform and Orion’s portfolio accounting system is
particularly exciting, according to Roy.

“The result is a powerful consolidated platform that provides
advisers with a complete end-to-end automated platform for engaging,
onboarding, servicing and managing clients,” Roy says.

Orion, in Omaha, is a privately owned portfolio accounting
platform. Jemstep, in Los Altos, California, is a technology provider for advisers and broker/dealers.